Friday, May 07, 2010

I mentioned the new policy at work that limits access to certain blogs (including mine and Pyro). It has thrown off my groove. Nonetheless, Dear Reader, here is what you've been looking forward to... to dangle a preposition. Now, remember: this is supposed to last you through the weekend!

This spoof of the Iron Man trailer ("Ironing Man") is not a knee-slapper, but it's a grinner. Well-done.

Anyone going to Iron Man 2? I'll have to wait; pushing to finish my Proverbs book final draft this weekend. Anyway, Roger Ebertliked it, as did a young feller I work with who saw it early.

I hadn't thought of this. High taxes are driving Americans living and working abroad to renounce their citizenship — more in the fourth quarter of 2009 than in all of 2008.

Cat-haters will like this story too much. Woman says her cat tried to kill her. I hate when that happens.

Of course, our cats try to kill us, too — one in particular. He's one we literally rescued from death's door, abandoned by his mother at about 3 weeks of age. We heard him and his sibs crying in our back yard during a heavy rain. Very sadly lost the sibs, but nursed him back to health. Loves to attack feet, so trusting that he's gotten knocked and kicked and trod on, and is still rascally and sweet. We named him BG, for Bear Grylls — because he survived a horrible situation.

Reader Pastor John has located yet another oil/water person. Are you old enough to have sung "For Those Tears I Died"? The theology eventually bothered me. The authoress, Marsha Stevens, embraced a sexual perversion whose practice God identifies as marking one as His enemy — yet she wants to call herself a Christian and head a "ministry." For the life of me, I don't get it. I don't try to say I'm a Muslim — or a lesbian, for that matter. What's the deal?

My dear wife told me about it, and reader Jonathan Vowell provided the link: American kids in America threatened, reprimanded and sent home from an American school for wearing American flags, and refusing to hide them as if they were shameful. Something seriously backwards here.

I like it. Stop light with a progress bar.

One more thought from our menagerie: thank God our Maine Coons are the sweetest cats in Christendom. They've got paws like dinner plates. If one of them ever cracked like that lady's cat did, we'd be ribbons.

Reader JDJ observes that "It's a..." -- well, you know. (He and I are sorry about the too-popular acronym there.)

You've heard that Franklin Graham was disinvited at the Pentagon because he opined, in the wake of 9/11, that Islam was (breaking news alert) “wicked, violent and not of the same God.” Well, now, can't have that. And, God bless 'im, Graham is still saying the same thing and preaching the same exclusive Gospel.

This is nothing if not interesting. Leaves me a bit torn. I like Sarah Palin, if only for the people she turns into burbling, dribbling, barking loons. So now she

endorses...Carly Fiorina, in the California Senate primary to unseat the execrable burbling, dribbling, barking loon Barbara "Don't Call Me 'Ma'am'" Boxer. Now, I would likely vote for a echidna, if it were running against Boxer. But I worked for Hewlett-Packard as Fiorina was driving it into the ground. I remember Fiorina's "pep talks," broadcast over speakers throughout the site, after which everyone would walk with eyes downcast and shoulders slumped, because she'd blamed the company's performance on them. I remember her taking the effective IT support the customers so enjoyed, and farming it off to India, and then some to Canada. (You think that will be brought up, in state with as miserable employment, and concerns about outsourced jobs, as California?) I remember during my last days there, when I'd talk to employee, those who'd say "Thank God! Someone who speaks English!" — and thinking of the sheer stupidity of saving a few pennies while forcing $50K-$100K-plus/year employees to wait and wait with nonfunctional pc's until "Buck" from India figured out their issue.

All of which to say: Palin's endorsement registers with me. But it's going to be a really hard sell.

UPDATE: now, this is a surprise. The very-liberal Los Angeles Times has declined to endorse Senator Boxer. In what must be the understatement of the decade thus far, it notes that she doesn't display much "intellectual firepower." Yeah, and water is powerful wet stuff!

...There is a reason why they are called the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

All I can say is that Abrams had better not screw up the ending to LOST. If he makes it somebody's "dream" or the Island is out in the middle of NV somewhere and the entire show was military experiment, Oh man...

"Reader, here is what you've been looking forward to... to dangle a preposition."

Dan, it's no sin to dangle a preposition. :-) This is from the style guide used by most North American book publishers:

“Ending a sentence with a preposition. The traditional caveat of yesteryear against ending sentences with prepositions is, for most writers, an unnecessary and pedantic restriction...A sentence that ends in a preposition may sound more natural than a sentence carefully constructed to avoid a final preposition...The ‘rule’ prohibiting terminal prepositions was an ill-founded superstition” (Chicago Manual of Style, 5.169).

"Anyone going to Iron Man 2?" My husband and I are going tonight, after dinner out to celebrate our anniversary (32 years yesterday, praise God!). We rarely go to see movies in the theatre, and we're looking forward to it!

Re: dangling prepositions: Dan, if you had to deal with as many convoluted sentences due to authors trying to avoid that old canard as I have, you might feel differently. (I'm a freelance copy editor.) The main goal is to make understanding the author's message as easy as possible for the readers. Anything that makes them stumble takes them out of the "zone," so to speak. But that's my particular hobbyhorse; don't mind me!

"I remember her taking the effective IT support the customers so enjoyed, and farming it off to India, and then some to Canada. "

Maybe it's Carly's fault. I had an HP tech "support" experience sometime this decade, that left me, to this day, with an aversion to HP tech support, and buying HP products that might require contacting HP support. 4 hours going round in circles trying to get support for a product, when we were an HP Service Center..grrrrrrrr.

Support in India isn't necessarily clueless script reading droids. Micro$oft's server support, the stuff you pay a per incident fee for, starts in India. They're good. They will get your problem fixed.

"Palin" -- yeah, she pisses off the right people, but rumors of NAR connections (crazy authoritarian charismaticism with a vengeance) keep me from joining the Sarah love fest. I'd rather not have a POTUS who does things because of extra biblical "words from the Lord". Segue to your current series on Team Pyro.

I don't know if you already saw this, but regarding the Comedy Central note, check out what they're thinking of doing next: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/07/show-about-jesus-is-just-a-maybe-for-comedy-central/

Well Palin's endorsement of Fiorina doesn't register with me and frankly I find her endorsement enigmatic.

DeVore is the solid tea party and social conservative in this Senate race and for the life of me I can't fathom why Palin endorsed Fiorina. Would she be better than Campbell, yes, probably, but still. Chuck DeVore will have my vote in the primary. I remember Rachael blaming the party heads for the awful candidates we have for governor running in the Republican Party (and they are not great candidates). If Campbell wins the primary we'll know the real problem doesn't lie in the state party leadership but with the electorate itself.

Two good series ending this year, '24' and Lost, I'm not sure that I can really handle this well.

I always thought the "For Those Tears I Died" song was called "Come to the Water" -- but I do remember it from my early Christian days about 20 years ago (though even then it was an older song)... had to look up the lyrics again to realize what you were talking about regarding the theology... and now I'll be like Staci, with that "Come to the Water" verse stuck in my head.

Never mind, I'll substitute Don Francisco's better lyric of "If You're Thirsty, come to the water" which keeps to a scripture verse.

At worst, these kids really were trying to be all up in the face of these other kids (CdeM is believed by a lot of folks to be nothing more than an excuse for a lot of antiAmerican Latinos to protest and a lot of college kids to get wasted). Hmmm. Yoots getting all feisty and up in eachother's faces? Wow. That'd be a first.

But school administrators acting like unthinking, reactionary, skittish teenagers??

Well, that's not a suprise either, because this is California.

Just imagine if the teachers had acted like, oh, y'know, teachers - asssessed the situation, refused to play either side's game, and scheduled a half day lecture for the entire school on the history of the American flag, the history of immigration in America - what's worked and what hasn't. You know - educated them.

Okay, rant over. But I do appreciate this regular reminder about why my daughters will most likely never see the inside of a California public school.

I forgot we were at HP at the same time! I remember the dispiriting all-hands talks too. But, in my job, I was also privy to a lot of her talks to customers too. Lady is a master communicator in a big room, and with media. Sad to say, in this day and age, that matters. What she failed at (beyond forgetting that her own employees needed to be treated like her "customers", instead of expungable(sp?) resources), was execution. She had a big vision, but she didn't have the operational skills to see it through. That's going to hurt her.

I think the reason more staunchly conservative people are backing Carly is because she's not a RINO, but neither can she be put in the "perky, bubble-head, big-hair, no brain" box so many other Republican women get put in, especially in California. She's got liberal Democrat-woman hair, for goodness sake. :)

According to the last poll that Rassmussen did, Devore doesn't do too bad against Boxer (I'm not sure how he does in the current primary race, if that's what you are asking.) Any incubment who earns less that 50% of the vote (which includes Boxer) is vulnerable. So, I don't think it matters who runs against Boxer. They will have an equal chance of winning against her. Things are so bad in CA, especially unemployment, she may be gone. Democrats are motivated to go to the polls this fall.

She may not be as RINO as Tom Campbell, but she is not as conservative as DeVore. She supported the Wall Street Bailout (of course so, did many other Republicans), she opposed the AZ immigration law, she supported the CA Cap and Trade bill, she would have voted to confirm Sotomayor. DeVore is the complete opposite.

DeVore is really the right choice for Republicans in CA. In this vulnerable time for Boxer, we may not get a chance to put a conservative representing CA in the Senate for a while. Let's not waste our vote on Fiorina or Campbell.

I can appreciate the fact that you're bringing up her experience in running HP and her liberal hair do style, but I don't see how she ran HP is relevant if she is wrong on certain issues.

Govenor Palin was criticized for her lack of experience. But the thing is if you're right on the issues, you can always get the help you need in running the government. I'm not interested, primarily, in how Fiorina ran HP. I'm primarily interested first, how does she stands on the issues, then, her experience in politics, then, maybe at the end, her experience in the private sector.

It really irks me when RINO Meg Whitman talks about her experience in running e-bay. I'm sorry, but running government is not like running a business.

In regards to the high school kids being sent home: there is no what that the school administration could publicly say, "We sent them home to keep the Mexicans from beating the refried beans out of 'em." The fallout from that would have been much worse...

The school district did say "The incident on May 5 at Live Oak High School is extremely unfortunate. While campus safety is our primary concern and administrators made decisions yesterday in an attempt to ensure campus safety, students should not, and will not, be disciplined for wearing patriotic clothing."

Does that blanket come in Queen? That is an ingenious product, if I do say so...

Anyone notice this from the "strange man" story?

In his youth he reported having various allegedly paranormal experiences, such as visions and telepathy, but it wasn’t until he turned 33 that Dajo professed to realise his body was ‘invulnerable’.

People can do creepy things when they're possessed.

And speaking of creepy things, notice that the cat attacked when she thought her kittens were in danger. Most people don't have cats with post-partum psychosis...hopefully this couple learned the importance of spaying and neutering.

Dave shouldn't feel so bad about being fooled. Remember when China fell for an article as well?

It should be fairly obvious why mocking Jesus is allowed but mocking Mohammed isn't. You are a whole lot less likely to be beheaded by Jesus followers (despite everything I learned in school). Of course, being beheaded is nothing compared to what awaits Jesus mockers. No reason for us to be punish sinners; he's got it covered in abundance.

Come on now, who wouldn't want a tauntaun sleeping bag? It doesn't have intestines, though, so it's not quite authentic. But at least it doesn't have the smell.

With Lost: am I the only one who is seeing the Jacob/Man In Black conflict as a mirror of the Vorlons and Shadows? It sets up as if Jacob is the good guy, but what has he actually done that's good? He seems like a Vorlon-type manipulator more than anything, intended to think he's good until you find out he's not any different from the bad guy. If Bruce Boxleitner shows up and tells them both to get off his island, I'll be highly amused.

Finally, I leave you with this explanation for my recent lack of commenting. Hope you understand.

The Cubicle: I don't think that's such a great gift for a kid...I mean the last thing I would want for my kids is to have them sit in front of a computer all day long, playing games and who knows what else...

@ CR If Campbell wins the primary we'll know the real problem doesn't lie in the state party leadership but with the electorate itself.

Really, you need to wait until that happens to figure out there is something wrong with the electorate? ;)

@DJP I've been traveling all week and I get the USA Today for free at my hotel everyday (only time I read it). I kid you not, that spoof piece about the rocks sounded much like many of the articles I read in the paper. Then I was thinking..how would the seeker sensitive Pastor re-translate the verses in the Bible about Christ being the rock in a society that didn't know what a rock was? And would that translation be good or bad for the RCC?

Did anyone read the high taxes article. You have to pay taxes on worldwide assets before you can renounce your citizenship? I never knew that. I know Denmark is thinking about making their citizens pay for lifetime benefits before they can emmigrate anywhere (so that they can't go in practice).

Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but there's a vast Republican conspiracy going on. There is an organized, well-funded effort to get Republicans in office. Republicans, period.The more money, the better. Ideology is of secondary importance.

Sadly, the conservative electorate seems to be buying into it. We've moved beyond discussions of "a third party will fracture and weaken the party" to completely giving up on any hope of conservative victory by agreeing with those who say "we know we'll never get a conservative elected, so we'll take a RINO."

But maybe it's not about what we think it's about...

Check out the Republican Young Guns Program. It exists to increase the number of "R's" in the House. Period. The way you become a Young Gun is to raise (or donate on your own) millions of dollars for the GOP. Your ideology is not that important - they can remake you in the image of a conservative if necessary.

I know, because the Young Guns came to my district in rural Wayne County, Ohio and gave us a RINO candidate. The video of his rise to power should be a wake up call to all of us who vote Republican. Note that this candidate traveled to DC to "persuade powerful members of the National Republican Congressional Committee" that he deserves Young Gun designation.

This millionaire car dealer came out of nowhere to get the endorsement of nearly every GOP organization in the state and had the Ohio GOP pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign. The GOP bosses strong-armed our primary process, sending 2-3 mailings a WEEK for this candidate. They didn't seem to mind that he has a history of tax problems (millions of dollars in fines for unpaid taxes) and lawsuits for his business practices & property foreclosures. They remade him into a fiscal and social conservative.

And even though this candidate had no history of doing anything for the pro-life movement, he received the endorsement of Ohio Right to Life over two other candidates who had long histories of pro-life activism (slap a '100% pro-life' badge on the mailings, it makes it so!) The director of OH Right to Life actually told me that they had to go with the candidate "most likely to win" in the general election and that the candidate's bank account was a big consideration.

Apparently, that was the Family Research Council's consideration when they endorsed him over the two SOLID conservative candidates.

You can say this is about whether a conservative has any chance of beating Boxer in CA, but when the same stinkin' thing is happening in Amish Country, in Ohio, in a district that had been solidly Republican for 38 years until two years ago, don't tell me it isn't about the GOP wanting to fill its coffers.

What I don't understand is why groups like Ohio Right to Life and Family Research Council are falling in line with this warped obsession with money over ideology.

One final note: at a Tea Party Express event recently, I spoke with one of the keynote speakers, a good conservative who had tried to run for Attorney General here, but was thrown under the bus by the state GOP. He said the reason we can't get conservatives elected is because "conservatives don't give." Obviously, meaning they don't give to political candidates. I know I'm guilty. Our family is generous toward our church and missions and parachurch ministries, but political candidates? Not so much. Probably the same for most of ya'll, I'm guessing. Enter, RINO's. Made me think.

I appreciate Franklin Graham's straight speech about the Christian faith. I wish more would tell it like it is the way he does. However, what's with getting all annoyed at being disinvited? Are you really surprised? So it was a slap in the face of American Christians... shouldn't we turn the other cheek? Why threaten Obama with losing the votes of Christian conservatives? He hasn't exactly been courting our vote anyway. Why would he care?